An update, what helped my success and what happened then
During March to June my company grossed around $30.000 a month (a total of $95.000). For two of those months we had a result of over $20.000 after all salaries, taxes, payments to partners and other expenses paid. Most of the money left over was invested to buy new PR6 and PR7 web sites and invested to create many new web sites which was later used to make even more money.
I think that is impressive for a small company with only 2 employees (excluding partners), me and my father Peter.
What sold our services
We had 2 web sites as landing pages selling our services. This one and this one.
Every day we got new service inquiries with no real effort. They came from the following sources:
- SEO companies for their clients (resellers)
- Clients from our directory submission service
- Our free directory that promoted on their automatic confirmation e-mails.
- My articles such as this one that went viral and got a lot of traffic.
- Word of mouth from clients that got excellent results from our services. (a few here)
- My name and my activity on SEO forums
- Andy Hagans that sent some clients to us as well
How did I organize the clients?
First you should know that we had no phone contact with our clients, all was via e-mail and all payment was made up front before start of service (Paypal).
We had 3 big white boards next to each other on our wall in the office. The one to the right was “The Prospect List” and it contained a list of names of people that had expressed a serious interest in taking our services. It usually contained 5-10 names with about $2K each in average. About once a week we went over those names and e-mailed them. If a person had not answered we usually asked if they got our mail, if they had any questions and so forth. This went on until A the person paid or B the person decided not to take our services and then the name was removed.
If the person went A and paid the name was moved the the white board in the middle. “Paid Clients List”. That board was divided in squares and in the squares we had the names of the paid client, date of payment, which services paid for and current status. We had about 10-20 names there. As soon the services for a client was completed and the reports sent and they confirmed all to be ok we removed the name from the white board in the middle.
On the board in the left we had 2 sections. List of major strategic targets for the next months (actions that had to do with organization and establishment, not production) and a list of major promotional targets (in fields such as branding, goodwill, e-mailings and so forth).
Peter worked a lot to get names to the white board on the right and move those names to the board in the middle. I worked a lot to make sure the white board in the middle did not fill up and backlog. When we had clients under control I could work with the targets on the board to the left.
We actually had names established and could for example say: “Today I will work on left”, quite funny.
I got a lot of e-mails, a lot. I used Outlook Express and they e-mails were mainly divided in the following folders:
- Clients that has paid
- Clients that has not yet paid
- E-mails relating to domains and web sites (I had 140 sites)
- Goodwill (Answering questions, helping SEO friends out and so forth for free)
- Other e-mails
- Private e-mails
(I had about 20 more but those were the main ones.)
The goal was to have a empty inbox, something I almost never could manage. Usually I had around a hundred mails unanswered but that’s life. The above mails were answered in the above priority. In the worst cases there was only time to answer e-mails from category number one above, the rest had to be sorted out and looked at later.
Every person that had expressed an interest in our services I created a text file for and the file name was the name of the person. In that text file I kept all the e-mail correspondence, notes, notes about payments, phone notes, PMs from forums and all else about that person with the most recent at the top. F5 is great to get the date. E-mails was not saved in Outlook but deleted once copied to the text file.
This system with text files was created 2 and a half years ago when the company was created and today I have 464 text files containing around 5 thousand e-mails. I like to get all info on a client by simply typing the first letters to select it and open it instantly. Those text files are also great to use as attachment in e-mails to your employee or the client itself. (”see all our correspondence in the attached text file”). I also like to order the text files after latest changed and see those I recently had contact with. There are negative factors in this system such I can’t generate lists and so on but I like it.
The signature system in Outlook is great. You simply create text files that you use as templates and when you answer an e-mail with a template you simply click Insert -> Signature -> Which template. I had for example one for link exchange mails, one for directory owners wanting to get on my directory list and other common e-mails. Earlier I also used templates to answer service inquiries but later I moved all info to the site itself (hidden or visible) and simply asked them to read it. (But always type their name when answering.)
Also the e-mail rules in Outlook is very time saving. For e-mails you get regularly such as from web sites, newsletters, email lists or others create rules that make them go in specific folders so you never see them in the in basket. Then when you have time you can look at them.
We also had an internal password hidden blog that contained vital lists of rented links and so on that both me and Peter maintained.
Production
We tried to maintain the making of to-do-lists. Each night we were supposed to write a to-do-list for the next day and we were supposed to get it done. Each month we tried to make more income than the previous month, reaching higher and higher. We celebrated with cake and nice dinners out when we broke a new income record.
We played video clips such as this one with high volume:
Rocky II - Training Montage
We both had the attitude that nothing was impossible, it was 100% up to us and so forth.
And then what happened?
I changed everything. Stopped taking in new clients, fired my employer, negotiated and bought out owners, cancelled the renting of the office and more. I started a whole new life.
It is difficult to explain and make sense of something like this, ie to more or less shut down a company so incredible profitable. There was no major upset or something that people could believe. There is a lot I could write about it but I can say that it is a combination of many things that culminated me to do what I did. Some of these things are in order of magnitude: Wanted to follow my writing dream, not having a life outside the internet, having almost no friends in real life, a complicated big religious conflict, Googles campaign against link selling, the inability to service more as all resources was used up, the services became less effective and gave less results, the pain of always being behind and having backlog, the urge to find a girlfriend, my fathers dominant personality and much more. A lot of thought went into the decision I took and it was the right one. I am an artist and I am meant to write, I am not a commercial executive and money is not that important for me. My goal is that from a few months from here I can make a living 2 days a week and write the rest.
Exactly how I will make a living is not decided. Maybe Adsense, affiliate, making and selling sites, selling linkads, a combination or something else. But I don’t think it will be a problem.
I started to change my life in end of July and a lot of things has happened since then but it has not been easy. The thought of more or less leaving the SEO world and entering the writing world were I am a total beginner is still a bit strange for me.
Related post from almost a year ago:
Important Major Business Decision
Quote:
In 2007 when I have my new major link building service set up I will withdraw a bit from the SEO world and I will then go back to my writings and write the 4 novels I long wanted to write. Perhaps I will take a laptop and travel somewhere far away �
The reason for me starting up a company in the first place was to earn a living and to make it possible to write. The company was never meant to go that far.
Update:
There were some great articles written in relation to this one and I would like to list them here for further reading:
Jim Westergren is a company owner from Sweden who currently lives in Bolivia with his wife. Some of his interests are SEO, web development, writing and
thanks for sharing Jim…
hope you stay somewhat connected to this industry, as you’re considered one of the thought leaders..
-peter
Good to hear from you Jim, if I were you I would have hired 2 employees and one CEO to direct the company. So that you could just sit, write and don’t worry about the SEO business while you get some money.
Jim, you make the best decision. You are young, strong and got the whole life in front of you - realize your dreams!
“The 4 hour workweek” by Timothy Ferris explains how to have a 4 hour workweek but still get rich. That book can learn many people a lot, but for you the book is more inspiration to work less. You allready know how to earn a lot of money, right now you must start to think how to manage your life so you can earn them without working 24/7.
A wish good luck in life, and hope to see you in a SEO-meeting soon!
The best of luck to you Jim! It’s a bold and brave decission to make!
Best of fortune in your new life. Well done on taking a brave step. Many lesser people would have done nothing.
All the best Jim! I hope you will achieve your dreams.
All the best Jim and Hope you get all that you want
Take Care.
Thanks a lot! This is touching
Estaban, I have thought about that as well as selling the whole company, believe me. But my course of action is the best.
Thanks Anton, just ordered that book!
Take care you as well!
Sad but respectable, good luck jim
I knew this was always what you wanted to do, so best luck now Jim!
Not sad at all. Someone following their dream is a good think. Jim still has all that knowledge in his head and you never know, could use it to help other writer’s in the future.
What do you want to write Jim? Philosophy, movie scripts (boxing
), children’s books, or all of the above? I’m sure you could turn your hand to just about anything.
Best decision of your life. Writing is hard to resist, and even if you didn’t make this decision now, writing would get you somehow else.
Take care.
Jim, congratulations. It can be hard to keep your eye on higher goals.
I have over 10 sites myself, about 75+ design clients and a popular ecom site. I am the only worker on all of this and know exactly how you feel. Some days I work 18-20 hours a day. I never work less than a 12 hour day except when I get in depression and do not go online for 2-3 day period only to return to dozens of problems and thousands of unanswered e-mail. Wise decision & good luck!!
Good luck to you Jim! I envy you for having the gut’s to persue your dream in this way.
Hopefully the SEO-Forum meets will continue so we will have a reason to get together a have a beer in teh future aswell
.
Thanks for being so honest. I went through some of the same issues (all the personal ones: no friends, no girlfriend, etc.), and it’s reassuring to read that I wasn’t alone. It was the best decision I made. Life’s short, and good for you.
Dan
Hi Jim,
Thank you for sharing your life.
Your site is working fine if using FireFox. It is not working well in IE browser.
Ok I understand.
Well I hope you will be happy with your future and at least you’ve got a financial cushion just in case. You’ll know what’s right for you.
Jim,
We probably haven’t kept in contact that often, and I guess it is because we both have (had) parallel sorts of lifestyles. I’m currently in the same boat as you found yourself in. Too much work not enough hours in the day to deliver the service that you want. and friends? what are they lol. It can be depressing at times.
I also love creative writing but decided pretty early on that whilst I could probably write some interesting stories, I wouldn’t have the longevity to churn out more than a couple before the ideas dried up.
It’s inspiring to see someone put money aside to chase their dream. I thought I had done the same by chucking in the office job to work from home, but your story is making me rethink my goals.
Stay in touch
Jim, I wish you the best in whatever you decide to do. Keep us posted if you get a book done that we can order!
Well i am too a webmaster and the reasons you specified like not having a social life etc. is what i suffer too, though i dont have a plan to quit business right now, mostly because i have an aim to be completed, perhaps in a few years.
Thanks
If you follow my blog I will keep you posted about my writings. But it will be mostly in Swedish.
Steve: Make sure you take care of yourself as well. Don’t sacrifice yourself for your company.
Dan: Nice to hear from you and hope your business is doing well. Our “partnership” in the beginning helped my company and I feel I owe you one. I will get back to you.
Matt: Thanks! I didn’t feel all that comfortable selling paid links to game Google now that you officially changed your guidelines regarding that. I suggest Google to rely less on links in their algo in the future.
Aditya: Ok, I wish you good luck!
I also linked to a few articles at the bottom of my post that is worth a read.
Hey jim … wishing you luck for your future…
I still remember you telling me that you want to sit on beaches in GOA with your laptop and continue your writing passion…
My invitation to you to visit India is still open …
Why not in Naga Hills ?
What is better for you Jim ? Beaches or Hills ?
Jim,
It’s great to hear that someone with the same love for creative writing is willing to give up such great success to follow his dreams. I went to college for Creative Writing myself, and I hope to one day return to it.
Good luck in your life moving forward - I don’t think there is any doubt that you will be successful in anything you try your hand at.
Great stuff Jim.
I’m very jealous. I often wonder why I do internet based work from a house in the suburbs, when I could be doing it remotely from an island paradise somewhere.
Long live passive income.
Well if you are half as sucessful with your books as you are with your seo business….. then i expect you to have a few bestsellers. Look forward to the translations of your books into English
Hi Jim
I wish you, your decision will be good. Business is not the most important thing in a life. Private life is more important.
Hi Jim, that was definitely an interesting post, and now I am starting to feel myself in the same shoes, atleast to some extent. I have been watching you for a while now, you do some nice and interesting stuff. There is no doubt to the fact that what you did was not an easy decision but your words “having almost no friends in real life, Googles campaign against link selling, the inability to service more as all resources was used up, the services became less effective and gave less results, the pain of always being behind and having backlog,” does make sense. I 100% agree, Strongly. Anyways, good luck with your life. Hope to meet you in person sometime, maybe at a PubCon Conference if you do get out there sometime maybe as a Writer :).
I’m a noob here and i work 14-16 hours a day and i can’t understand how you get out years of jobs and experience…
you are reference point for many people…no more then?
Sorry man you should have got some employees. You were thinking small at a time when you could have scaled your business and taken some time off and let some people continue your ideas. That is the great thing about capitalism, if your idea works then you can pay someone near min wage to do a lot of tasks for you. You could have written from home and deal with employees by messenger. You just needed to be the face.
As for Google and links, it is the basis of their algo and for some time to come. It is a cat and mouse game. Anyway wish you luck, not many people have the courage to turn their backs on something that is working and if you do go back, explore the idea of employees. It really works.
Wow yeah I’d say thats impressive. Good for you. Our best month was $10,000 profit we keep getting better though. I’ve actually been looking for high pr sites to buy that are relevant to our business.
very interesting and well written info!
The best of luck to you Jim! It�s a bold and brave decission to make!
wow $10,000 profit!
Man oh man. Thats a great move buying pr6 and pr7 sites. thanks for the article great info, techniques, and inspiring.
Come and see us in Christchurch, New Zealand any time.
You are doing the right thing.
Hello Jim,
I have been reading your website and most say I am simultaneously awed and shocked. I don�t want to comment your decisions or opionions but being a person who knows you and understands you I want to express my admiration of your achievements. It was always clear that you were different, you were intelliegent lacking self-belief but very attentive. I am happy that you could discover for yourselves what you are capable of achieving and have also exchanged it into valuables. Take care, maybe we can meet up when I am visiting Copenhagen.
The best of luck to you Jim! It�s a bold and brave decission to make!
Very impressive… this is really inspiring for small businesses. Thank you!